OUT THERE: The path more taken

A great trail can be about the destination — the doughnuts atop Barr Trail, the views from Eagle Peak, the falls at St. Mary’s — or it can be about the journey — slaloming through the Chutes, sweating up the Incline, seeing what’s around the next bend on Columbine.

To a trail designer, however, a great trail is one that can stand up to all of those trail lovers, shed water like a duck and takes users where they want to go so they’re not tempted to cut cross-country.

“You’ve got to get it back in tune with Mother Nature,” said Dave Dessel, a professional trail builder who spent much of November realigning and rehabbing trails in Stratton Open Space.

“We have so much trail, but we don’t have a lot of good, sustainable trail,” he said.

A sustainable trail rises or falls gently against the surrounding contour of the land — no more than 8-10 percent grade, Dessel said. It has a slight out-slope to shed water and undulations to provide drainage without requiring structures like water bars or steps.

“The key is trying to establish a viable, sustainable trail that will not require maintenance over and over and over and over,” he said.

It’s counter intuitive in Colorado Springs, where many popular trails slash steeply up crumbly granite, but trail designers say it’s entirely possible to build a simple dirt trail that will hold up for years or decades of use. For instance, the Palmer Trail, which climbs from High Drive to meet with the top of Section 16, has been around for nearly a century with little maintenance.

“I would tell you that 95 percent of erosion problems on a trail are not caused by users, but by runoff and poor trail design,” said Chris Lieber, Colorado Springs’ manager of design, development and trails and open space. The city's dedicated trails and open space tax paid for Dessel's work in Stratton.

“Most of the trails you run across, they were never designed, period,” said Jim Schwerin, president of the mountain bike trails group Medicine Wheel. “They were just a guy going from point A to point B.”

Taking the shortest route usually means cutting up the contour, which creates a gully that collects water.

“It picks up the gravel and that becomes like a scouring pad,” said Mary Burger, director of projects for the Friends of the Peak trails group. “You’re assisting Mother Nature in washing the mountains into the sea.”

Designing a trail from scratch is straightforward (even if building it requires blood, sweat and tears). It’s shoring up and fixing existing trails that’s tricky, Dessel said. And public relations is as big a challenge as the physical labor — people don’t like anyone messing with their favorite trail.

People don’t like change, Dessel said, but a wider trail allows people to walk side-by-side, or pass, reducing conflicts. And it can still be fun, he said, pointing to the Chamberlain Trail, which snakes through the forest midway up Stratton Open Space. The dips and twists that improve drainage also make trails enjoyable for bikers, hikers and runners.

“You can please everybody,” Dessel said.

Part of improving old trails is closing off old social or side trails to keep traffic on the straight-and-reasonably-narrow. On the Seven Bridges Trail, Burger said, her group repeatedly blocked off side trails that led nowhere. Some people liked those spur paths, however, and kept pulling the brush and stones back out.

“A lot of it isn’t so much vandalism as it is people that are truly concerned that what we are doing is harming what they believe the trail should be,” she said.

Finally, there is still a place for trails that don’t rise gently or shed water or resist erosion, Burger said. Some trails are unsustainable, but awesome. Think of Columbine Trail, or the Manitou Incline.

“Some things are worth being labor-intensive,” Burger said.

TRAIL BUILDING
Want to lend a hand improving local trails? Contact these trail groups:
Friends of the Peak
Medicine Wheel
Rocky Mountain Field Institute
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado
Colorado Motorcycle Trail Riders Association
Resources:
Natureshape, books on natural surface trail design
TrailArts, trail builder Dave Dessel’s company